Living in St Albans we're incredibly luck to have Willows Activity Farm right on our doorstep. It's close enough that plenty of kids from the children's school go regularly. We tend to keep it as somewhere that we go on a special occasion or as a big treat though. Keeping it as a magical place to go for the kids and when they do go they always absolutely love it.
It has been a while though since our last visit and since then Willows have become home to CBeebies' Peter Rabbit, so this was the first time that Little Miss C and Master C had been to the Peter Rabbit Adventure Playground or ... read more

Before we had kids, one thing that Mr C and I often spoke about was a dream of going on long family walks with our children. Heck, I think we even mentioned it on our first ever weekend together! Anyone who actually has kids will know though that this dream isn't actually all that close to reality - instead you're likely to get lots of moaning about tired legs and children wanting to be picked up.
Master C is now two and a half (I know, I still don't believe it either!) and he's now confident enough on his feet that he's walking around quite a lot and we've started to introduce a regular ... read more

I'm not going to pretend to be some amazing food blogger or restaurant reviewer, as I'm obviously neither of those, but what I am is someone who likes good food, excellent service and attention to detail and all three of those were completely in abundance last night when I was invited along to a special pre-launch night at St Albans' newest restaurant Tabure.
Beautiful interior and really can't wait to sit by the open grill @Tabure_Kitchen Thank you for a lovely evening pic.twitter.com/pmp7LjVtEw
— Food Ren (@RenBehan) April 23, 2015
Proper food bloggers like Ren take photos - I'm too ... read more

Every so often an email appears in my inbox that I just have to jump and answer in a split second and an invitation to spend a morning at the Verulamium Spa was one such email!
Ever since the new Westminster Lodge leisure centre opened in St Albans I have been a regular visitor. Little Miss C does weekly swimming lessons there, we go swimming there as a family and the kids have attended several other classes and events there. In all that time I've walked past the entrance to the Verulamium Spa, but it wasn't until Tuesday this week that I finally stepped through the door and discovered that ... read more

I've been planning to write this post for over a month now. I've been wanting to tell you all about our exciting plans for the bloggers of St Albans to do their bit towards raising money for Sport Relief. But, to be totally honest with you I've been so busy wrapped up in organising it all that I've just not had time. There are only 36 hours left now before it's our turn on the Team Honk stage, so without further ado I guess I'd better tell you what we're up to.
It's nearly a year to the day since I told you all about Team Honk - the amazing team of three bloggers that formed to raise money for ... read more

Back on what I think was the last day I felt vaguely normal before taking to my sick bed I had an amazing child-free day cashing in my birthday present from Mr C. Rather than buying things I asked for an experience gift and he came up trumps by paying for me to attend a workshop at local shop Lavender Blue.
The workshop I chose was one in which you take an old chair, very much like this one...
... and then use Annie Sloan paints and fabric to turn it into something quite special.
Before attending the workshop I'd got visions that much of my day would be spent sandpaper in hand ... read more

I was delighted to manage to get myself a place on Heaven is a Cupcake's latest cupcake decorating workshop - a special Halloween themed one. I've enjoyed Lucy's cupcakes for a while now and am always admiring photos of her amazing works of art that she regularly posts on her Facebook page. Ever since my attempts to make Thomas the Cake for Little Miss C's 3rd birthday I thought I'd better do something to up my game before I need to make the next one.
Heaven is a Cupcake run regular evening decorating workshops here in St Albans and I've always heard good things about ... read more

I've got some exciting news that I've been meaning to share with you for ages - I've found a new home for all St Albans crafty types.
The lovely Charlotte has opened up StudioDelirium in the grounds of the Secret Garden Cafe here in St Albans. She's offering knitting and crochet classes, a weekly Stitch & Bitch session and also selling a delightful array of lovely yarn and crafty accessories, as well as some lovely handmade bits buy local people including myself! Whilst she's starting small she is very keen to meet the needs of all local crafts people, so ... read more

After an incredibly wet Saturday we were woken in the early hours of Sunday morning by yet more rain. Looking out of the bedroom window the wind was raging, the road turned into a river and several rumbles of thunder passing overhead. We therefore headed down to the WWA this afternoon expecting to see some degree of damage from the weather. Luckily we were proved wrong. The butterfly garden seemed to have escaped the worst of the wind, and with only a couple of small exceptions, most of the plans were still standing proud. There weren't that many butterflies to be seen today, but the bees ... read more

I'm sure Bank Holiday Mondays are supposed to be for lazing about. Ours turned out to be quite an active day. We met up with our friends S and A and headed out for a good long walk in the sunshine. Mr C and I often go walking with these particular friends and know that they're up for a bit of a challenge. Hence we decided to repeat a walk from our Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire walks book which took us from central St Albans to Harpenden and back.Now the book reckons this walk is 10.5 miles and should take about 5 hours. It's not a particularly challenging walk, but a nice ... read more